TV Licence update

Update on free and concessionary television licences

On 1 August 2020 the BBC will be introducing changes to its TV licensing fees for the over-75s, which may have an impact on your residents. We have received a number of enquiries from our members on this issue and have developed a set of frequently asked questions to help you.

What are the changes coming into force on 1 August 2020?

From 1 August 2020 those aged 75 or over will no longer be eligible for a free TV licence unless they are on pension credit. This change was due to come into force on 1 June 2020 but, due to the Covid-19, was delayed by two months.

TV Licensing will be writing to anyone over the age of 75 from August to advise them of what they need to do to continue watching live TV or using services such as BBC iPlayer.

What if the resident’s free TV licence has already expired or is due to expire on 31^st July?

TV Licensing has issued the following guidance note:

www.tvlicensing.co.uk/generalnotice

They have indicated that there is no need to worry about the expired license at this stage and your residents will remain covered by their TV license until they are contacted with guidance on what to do next.

Do the changes apply to ARC licences?

No. If your charity has an ARC licence and your residents are aged 75 or over, their TV licence will remain free of charge, regardless of whether they’re on pension credit or not.

NOTE: For anyone who is aged between 60 and 75 and is retired, the cost of an ARC licence remains at £7.50 per year.

This has been confirmed in the TV Licensing Full General Notice available here

What is an ARC license and how can we apply?

The ARC licence is a type of concessionary TV licence available to people living in care homes and some other forms of sheltered housing. Both the resident and accommodation needs to be eligible for this type of licence.

Almshouses are eligible for an ARC licence if the building itself, land it was built on or charity was established before 1 November 1949. Sheltered or supported accommodation may also be eligible if it:

Is housed in a building that has been erected or converted for the purposes of occupation by residents that are retired and over 60, or disabled
Forms part of a group of at least four dwellings within a common and exclusive boundary (up to 25% of units in a scheme can be properties purchased under the ‘Right to Buy’ legislation)
Provides or is managed by a not for profit organisation; including local authority or a housing associations
Has a person whose function is to care for the needs of the residents (e.g. a warden) and who either lives on site or works there for at least 30 hours a week, excluding on-call hours.

Your residents will also need to qualify for the licence. They must be aged 60 or over and retired or not working more than 15 hours a week, or disabled (e.g. have substantially impaired sight, hearing or speech, a mental disorder or be substantially physically disabled by illness, any impairment present from birth or otherwise).

To apply for an ARC licence, please visit:

www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/business-and-organisations/residential-care-homes-aud14.

How do I add a resident to our ARC licence?

You will need to write to TV licensing to let them know when you want to add someone to your ARC licence. If the resident has already paid for a full TV license, they can apply for a refund once they’ve been added to the ARC license.

If you have any questions or concerns about TV licences, please contact us at admin@almshouses.org or on 01344 452099.

Posted 27 July 2020

Members Survey 2020 Report

A big thank you to our members for responding to our 2020 Members Survey. 557 members completed the questionnaire, which is an excellent return and 137 more than our 2018 survey.
Your contributions help us enormously – to plan and tailor our services to suit your needs today and over the next 5 years and also to help us to gauge where members may be feeling frustrated and services need to be enhanced or introduced.
Many of you also took the opportunity to compliment the team on the service we provide and I thank you – like any organisation, it is always rewarding to receive good feedback, but it is also important that we make sure we address any concerns you may have and I will ensure these areas are reviewed and raised at future Board meetings and acted on.
I wonder though about those members that, through time commitments or other reasons, were not able to respond to the survey. I think we need to do more to reconnect to those members and canvas their views or at least remind them that we are here for them. Maybe they think we are doing just fine but I do not want to assume, so I will continue to seek more and different ways to communicate with all our membership.
Best regards
Nick Phillips | CEO Almshouse Association

Please click on the below to access the Almshouse Association 2020 Members Survey Report.

Members Survey 2020 Report

Posted 23 July 2020

Virtual Recruitment

Virtual Recruiting can work well!

Charisma recruitment is registered on the Almshouse Association’s Panel of Consultants and they have offered some great advice to any members that may be finding ‘in person recruitment’ a challenge at the moment:

Right now, recruitment may not be at the top of your list of priorities, however, if you suddenly have a need in your team, you may be questioning the logic to start a recruitment process for a vital role at this time, knowing that you may not be able to meet (interview) potential interested candidates face to face.
Let me put your mind at rest by sharing our experiences with you, as the Consultants at Charisma have been successfully recruiting for Almshouse charities and other not for profit organisations, both through personal and virtual interviews, for many years.
With a clear, well-structured, yet flexible, recruitment plan in place, even during these unprecedented times, a successful outcome can be achieved through creative methods!
Expert, insightful recruitment takes time and should not be rushed. A commitment from the Board and executive team to allow this new, virtual, approach to work should allow each search to be made possible and, when an appointment has been made, then to carry this forward on to induction of a new team member virtually too.     With the benefit of using technology like MS Teams, Zoom and Skype, presentations can be shared via Dropbox, virtual interviews carried out successfully and you could even give the candidates a ‘tour’ of the offices and a chance to meet the team too – all through these specific on-line platforms.
We can share our experience of just how we have helped our clients to do this in recent weeks and how we can help to ensure that your almshouse has the best people to sustain its activities going forward.

Contact details for Charisma Recruitment:
Jenny Warner, Managing Director, Charisma Recruitment Ltd
Specialists in recruitment for charities and not-for-profit organisationsjenny@charismarecruitment.co.uk | 0207 998 8888

Posted 22 July 20

Stoneking Webinar: Incorporation for Almshouses

Webinar: Incorporation for Almshouses – Why and How? – An Almshouse Toolkit

Date : 28.07.2020
Time: 2-3 pm
Fee: Free of Charge

Stone King LLP and The Trust Partnership invite Almshouse Association members to their third webinar providing almshouse charities with some legal guidance and practical tips as we reflect on the effects of the pandemic.

Following Part One: Surviving lockdown – an Almshouse Toolkit and Part Two: Post-Lockdown Risk Assessments Stoneking present, by popular request, Part Three: Incorporation for Almshouses – Why and How?

In the third part, Tim Rutherford (Head of the Charity and Social Enterprise Group at Stone King) and Elizabeth Fathi (Director of Almshouses at The Trust Partnership) combine their extensive knowledge and experience of almshouses to present Part Three: Incorporation for Almshouses – Why and How?

The webinar will cover:

Why incorporate and what are the alternatives?
Which Structure to use
The Process
What to look out for
Timing

This webinar will follow a question and answer format with examples to enable a full exploration of legal and practical matters.

If you have any questions you wish to submit in advance, please include them when registering or alternatively please email events@stoneking.co.uk. There will also be opportunity to submit questions during the webinar.

To book your place at the webinar, please click here.

Posted 21st July 2020

Trustee Recruitment Masterclass Course

Following the success of our Essential Boardfinder webinar in June, we are now offering an in-depth look at the trustee recruitment process in a five-part course.

When: 28 July – 25 August 2020
Cost: £50 (with a £25 refund to those who complete all five webinars)

Over five weeks, participants will discover:

how to identify the skills they need on their trustee board
how to develop a compelling trustee advert
how to interview candidates and tips on the induction process for new trustees.

Each masterclass will be 60 minutes long and held on Zoom. Those booking onto the course will be expected to take part in each of the five webinars. Places are limited to 20 people so early booking is recommended.

To reserve your space, please complete the booking form and return to rosiesweeney@almshouses.org.

Posted 9th July 2020

Historic England: Improving energy efficiency in listed buildings

Historic England has produced a new report, Energy Efficiency and Historic Buildings: How to Improve Energy Efficiency, which looks at how you can improve the energy efficiency of historic buildings.

The report highlights the necessity of striking the correct balance between the benefits that improved efficiency can bring, with the harm that can be done to these precious establishments. To achieve this balance the report highlights the need to take a holistic ‘whole building’ approach which takes account of the buildings context, significance and factors which affect energy use.

Carried out properly this approach will ensure that you:

avoid harm to significance
are effective, cost efficient, proportionate and sustainable
ensure a healthy and comfortable environment for occupants
minimise the risk of unintended consequences

This guidance is likely to be useful to many of our members tasked with protecting and maintaining their historic almshouses. As always, the Association is here to offer support to members who may be looking to renovate their almshouses, so please do not hesitate to contact us.

Posted 20 July 2020

Affordable Housing Commission: Making housing affordable after Covid-19

The Almshouse Association’s response to the Affordable Housing Commission’s Making Housing Affordable After COVID-19 report

The Almshouse Association agrees with the Affordable Housing Commission that social and affordable housing should be at the heart of the nation’s recovery from COVID-19. Our country faced a mammoth task in dealing with the housing crisis before the Coronavirus pandemic, but now we have an opportunity to achieve real, long-lasting change. We believe that almshouses can form part of this change by allowing those in need to access high-quality housing which promotes an individual’s independence and develops close-knit community living.

We look forward to working closely with Lord Best and the Affordable Housing Commission and hope that we can continue to pressure national and local government to implement the Commission’s recommendations.

Posted 20th July 2020

Cybersecurity Webinar: Protecting you and your data

Join us for this free 60 minute webinar on how to keep your charity’s data safe.

When: 23 July 2020, 15:00-16:00
Cost: Free

Hosted by KCS Ltd, The Almshouse Association’s IT provider, this webinar will:

look at the techniques used by criminals to access your data
explain the damage this can cause
give you tips on how to protect your organisation and yourself.

The webinar will be held on Skype and you will need to have Skype downloaded to take part.

Click here to book your free space at the Cybersecurity Webinar

Posted 9th July 2020

ONS Index of Private Housing Rental Prices statistics – Association Comment

The Office for National Statistics released its monthly Index of Private Housing Rental Prices last week which shows the continued growth of private rent in the last 5 years.

The figures show that between January 2015 and June 2020 Private Housing Rental Prices have increased by 9.3%. Too many people already struggle to afford their rent alongside all other necessities and the continued rise in rent, sometimes for inadequate housing, means this problem can only get worse.

The Almshouse Association believes that we must do more to make high-quality, community housing a larger part of our society. The almshouse model provides genuinely affordable accommodation to those in need, providing them with independence and removing the burden of excessive rents. Almshouses have provided this service for over 1,000 years and are ready to continue serving their communities so that no one is left without a roof over their head.

15 July 2020

Claiming Enhanced Housing Benefit for Intensive Housing Management

Supported Housing has recently written an article on how and why it may be beneficial for members to claim enhanced Housing Benefit for Intensive Housing Management (also known as enhanced housing management and/or additional housing management).

The guidance refers to traditional rent/service charges, but the rules are still applicable to almshouses.

What is Enhanced Housing Benefit and Intensive Housing Management?

Intensive Housing Management tasks are normally associated with the work of a Support Worker or Scheme Manger, but there is no definitive list. Functions could include:

“Housing management functions such as lettings, assistance with claiming Housing Benefit to ensure that rent and service charges are paid, controlling access and facilitating and monitoring site visits from contractors and other visitors/professionals, arranging aids and adaptations, health and safety and risk assessments of property, management, administration, delivery and facilitation of housing services provided, the additional maintenance and services costs.”

As long as these tasks are not funded by any other revenue stream they can be funded by Housing Benefit. Furthermore, if you are a registered provider of social housing and you charge Intensive Housing Management as a service charge, the local authority can reclaim the full cost back from the government. In this scenario, you are not only helping your own charity financially, but you would also be contributing to your local area.

The key points of the article are:

Enhanced Housing Benefit is payable to providers of supported and sheltered housing if they comply with Exempt Accommodation rules.
You can get the full cost recovery on your housing costs
Choosing this method could free up funds to invest in your almshouses and staff

The Almshouse Association offers a template letter and a non-exhaustive list of services to members wishing to apply for Exempt Accommodation Status. This can be found at https://www.almshouses.org/model-policies-and-templates/ Alternatively, you may choose to use the service offered by Supported Housing, however if you are eligible for Enhanced Housing Benefit, you will incur a charge for the assistance.

14 July 2020